Live at the Bike continues to mix it up with another special episode at a special time.

On Thursday, May 26, 2011 at 7:30 p.m., the 2007 World Series of Poker Last Woman Standing Maria Ho will play host to her friends in her own special Live at the Bike No Limit Hold’em 1/3 cash game on liveatthebike.com. This may be your last opportunity to watch these rising stars in action before they migrate to Vegas for the 2011 World Series of Poker. Maria will be joined at the table by seven of her dear friends, including her bestie: Tiffany Michelle.

The first and only live cash  game captured specifically for the web, Live at the Bike is webcast direct from the world famous Bicycle Casino. Beginning in early 2005, The Bicycle Casino has captured more than 400 episodes of pure cash action…from mid limits to high stakes. With this special episode, Live at the Bike continues the tradition of bring its viewers what they want to watch.

	MARIA HO (Professional Poker Player) Famously known for being the Last Woman Standing at the 2007 World Series of Poker Championship Event, her extensive resume of live and online results include nine WSOP cashes, three WPT cashes and in just the last year, she has made four final tables in major $10k events. Outside of tournaments she is one of few females to play high stakes cash games. She is currently ranked as one of Poker’s Top 10 Female Money Earners of All Time (under the age of 30). She has also been seen on: The Amazing Race, American Idol, Anderson Cooper 360, The World Series of Mahjong and as a commentator and on-camera host for WSOP.com and ESPN 360.
	SHAUN SIPOS (Actor) Is a Canadian born actor, best known for playing David Breck on the 2009 hit TV show remake, Melrose Place. He has also been seen on Shark, Life Unexpected, Complete Savages, Final Destination 2, and CSI: Miami. When he’s not working on a show he races cars and spends time back home in Vancouver.
	JENNIFER COX (Actress) Famously known for her role as Jan in The Brady Bunch Movies. She has also been seen on film and television shows such as The Back-Up Plan, Reno 911, Pushing Daisies, and Will & Grace. She is a huge poker enthusiast and when she’s not on set she can most definitely be found at a poker table.
	NICK GONZALEZ (Actor) Is an actor seen on numerous TV shows and films like Melrose Place, The OC, Spun, True Blood and most recently starring in ABC’s Off the Map. He has been playing poker for several years and is widely known throughout the poker community. He frequents Hollywood house games, charity tournaments and was seen at the final table of the 2009 WPT Celebrity Invitational where he took 2nd Place.
	TOM MARCHESE (Professional Poker Player) Earned the title of 2010 CardPlayer Player of the Year after a breakout year where he made 10 final tables, including a 1st place victory at the NAPT Las Vegas. He is just coming off a final table finish at the WPT Hollywood Poker Open this past month. Tom has over 2.4million in career earnings.
	TIFFANY MICHELLE (Actress/Professional Poker Player) Is an actress who fell into playing poker. Her 17th place finish out of 6,844 players at the 2008 World Series of Poker broke records for the largest field conquered by a female in live poker tournament history. She was named one of Poker’s Top 10 Most Fascinating People of 2008 and in 2010 was included in Maxim’s Top 20 Hottest Celebrity Poker Players. She has also been seen on: ER, Nip/Tuck, The Amazing Race, LA Ink and The World Series of Blackjack.
	REID YOUNG (Professional Poker Player) Is a successful online cash game player as well as a poker coach and poker author at CardPlayer. Has a major in Philosophy and is the founder of Transform Poker.

Though none of the eleven Season VI HPT Champs ran deep to the Six, many of them stuck around the extra night to sweat the final table including HPT POY Bryan Reisner, Las Vegas grinder Kimbo Ung, US Army Staff Sergeant Jason Fennel, aspiring American Idol singer Kurt Fraser, and an extremely personable Matt “MyTmase” Mason (who was diligently counting chipstacks all throughout Day 2.)

Here are the results:

HPT Soaring Eagle Season VI ->$1500 +$150 Main Event
1st: $176,865 Ahmed Harajli
2nd: $88,434 Joey Brown
3rd: $53,060 Jordan Rowan
4th: $41,269 Dean Hamrick
5th: $35,374 Bernard Lee
6th: $29,478 Chuck Earl

The taping of the final table lasted about 5 hours. Chuck Earl was the first to exit the taping area when Dean Hamrick’s big slick & ace-on-the-river combo beat Earl’s Queens.  Pros Dean Hamrick and Bernard Lee busted out 4th and 5th place, respectively.  Early on, Bernard went on a heater, shoving four consecutive times, while everyone folded and urged him to knock it off until on the last hand he showed kings.

Cowboys were not good to him in the endgame – he took a particularly nasty beat when his pockets fell short to 10s, when the case 10 hit the turn (another player revealed after the hand he was holding the other out), ending his tournament life.  Shortly thereafter, Hamrick ran his 33s into QQs, leaving him on the shortstack.  In the next hand, he pushed allin with K-rag vs. AQ, but it did not get there, and he left with fourth place money.

I happened upon the pair conversing during the break just after Lee’s shove-shove-shove-and-shove fest at the FT.

Here is the link to the interview where they discuss running deep together in the $1500 2010 WSOP Main Event where Hamrick won his first bracelet-> rungood.tv| ESPN Inside Deal Host Bernard Lee and Dean Hamrick Square Off at Heartland Poker Tour TV Table

Jordan Rowan cashed out soon after at 3rd, leaving headups to Joey Brown and Ahmed Harajli.  I’m interested to watch the broadcast of this matchup, because without seeing the hole cards, it still was more entertaining to me than watching the Duhamel-Racener matchup streaming on XBox Live. In the end, Joey went all in shortstacked with K5 against Ahmed 10s.  Ahmed’s hand held up, making him champ of the HPT Season VI Finale, surviving a field of 413 players.

Maria Ho and Tiffany Michelle, patched in UB, presented the Michigan native with his $176,865.  I overheard the floor saying that Ahmed, showing some real class, requested to donate a portion of his winnings to the Disabled American Veterans charity.

Tiffany Michelle was TV table “bubble girl”, eliminated by big stack Joey Brown, finishing 7th of 413 entrants and taking home $19,927.

Making the final six was ESPN Inside Deal host and poker pro Bernard Lee, who decided to enter in the tourney at the last minute. Another pro at the table, who has played Bernard previously, is WSOP 2008 Main Event bubble boy Dean Hamrick.  Dean won his first bracelet this year at a $1500 WSOP 2010 NLHE event, and cashed in two others.

Seat Assignments/Chip Counts
Seat 1: Dean Hamrick 715,000
Seat 2: Joey Brown 2,020,000
Seat 3: Bernard Lee 680,000
Seat 4: Chuck Earl 450,000
Seat 5: Jordan Rowan 850,000
Seat 6: Ahmed Harajli 1,520,000

Payouts
1st: $176, 865
2nd: $88,434
3rd: $53,060
4th: $41,269
5th: $35,374
6th: $29,478

Blinds will be set according to the *secret* HPT TV Table magic formula (??) and will last 40 minutes. Cards will be in the air shortly at approximately 6:45p EST/3:45p Vegas.

Follow me @scarlet_lv today for live-tweets from the rail.

There were five notable pros playing the Main, who attending the PPA-sponsored charity bounty tourney benefiting the Disabled American Veterans on Thursday.

Tiffany Michelle & Maria Ho = future USO?

@TheScottyNguyen was the first of them to fall on D1, with his aces cracked in Level 6 (see rungood.tv|bustout interview vid.)  Darvin Moon’s 99′s pre-flop shortshack jam fell to 77′s set late in Level 11.  @TiffnyMichelle and ESPN Poker’s @BernardLeePoker are healthy; @MariaHo has just over 10BBs.

Play for D2 resumes shortly after 10a EST/7a Vegas today at L13 (40 min levels), playing to 6.  The final TV table of the “HPT Six” is scheduled to begin taping @ 5p EST/2p Vegas.

POI (person-o-interest) Chip Counts:

Tiffany Michelle: 162.5k
Brandon Dosch: (HPT Champ & POY Contender): 162.5k
Matt Alexander: (HPT Champ & POY Contender): 136.5k
Bernard Lee: 118k
Maria Ho: 68.5k

Average Stack = 103,250
Big Stack ~ 230k

Day 2 -> L13 Antes/Blinds = 500/3k/6k

Cash bubble @ 41 players today, and the winner will take down an estimated ~ $177k. (hey, I’m not @KevMath y’all, even *inside* the tourney room.)

Follow @TiffnyMichelle, @BernardLeePoker, @MariaHo for table-twitfeed.
Follow me @scarlet_lv today for live-tweets from the rail.

[via Wicked Chops]

Watch Tiffany Michelle and Maria Ho Show The Globetrotters How To Play Basketball on RawVegas.tv

In case you did miss the show, you can catch episode 5 in its entirety here.

All we’ll tell you about it is that the Racers travel to Dubai, where eight teams are reduced to seven. Semi-spoiled: Tiffany being Tiffany + Maria driving => karmically fitting results.

And for something a little extra, here’s @TiffnyMichelle discovering that not all Arabs are terrorists:

Guilty pleasure, I suppose. As a man who has misread my own standing and floundered prolifically before, I’m finding it oh-so-enjoyable — cringe-tickley, I’d say — to watch two hot(ish) poker girls (one of whom I kinda-sorta know personally) gloriously stumble for my amusement. Seriously, mocking each other’s failures and belittling successes is the foundation of some of my strongest, most enduring friendships! I think it’s how guys show love.

In the premiere episode of The Amazing Race, we see Tiffany and Maria start out in 1st, drop down to last, and rebound to finish in 7th. In the process they paint themselves (and poker pros) in a less than favorable light.

According to the E! Online blog:

The first team to put a bitter taste in our mouths, however, are unendearing professional poker players Maria Ho and Tiffany Michelle, who incurred a two-hour penalty after losing two of their group. The shady duo rival Johnny Fairplay’s dead-grandma fib by telling teammates they work as counselors for a nonprofit organization helping homeless youth…a great lie, if you can keep it up for more than an hour. They couldn’t—when recognized at the airport by a poker fan, they basked in his adulation…within earshot of their amazed competitors. The duo also shared another “savvy” strategy: flirting with cute brothers Sam and Dan McMillen. Both of whom are gay—and playing their cards right by flirting right back with the femmes fatales.

Click below for more highlights, lowlights, and poker-focussed observations from episode 1:

• Two members of the Harlem Globetrotters get to wear shirts promoting their brand. But no Ultimate Bet paraphernalia. Total bullshit, right?
• Maria and Tiffany say they don’t like Zev and Kevin — who unbeknownst to them had already shown themselves to be the darling “good guys” of the cast.
• Zev, who has Asperger’s Syndrome (a type of autism), says he doesn’t get a “warm fuzzy feeling” from Tiffany and Maria.
• Other TAR players — we’re only one episode in — call them “liars” and “shady”. Gee, such labels attached to an Ultimate Bet pro and associate? Shocking.
• Maria and Tiffany say they don’t believe Lance is a lawyer. He is, albeit a douchey one.
• Tiffany believes she and Maria are “rich” … as in wealthy.
• Maria lets Tiffany down by not eating a golf-ball size chunk of wasabi fast enough.
• The purple duo go through a spell where they aren’t talking to each other.
• Tiffany lets down Maria by “losing” two of 20 Japanese tourists when it was her responsibility not to do so. Needle-in-the-haystack search for them on the streets of downtown Tokyo=funny.
• Maria knows how to make really good Vietnamese food.
• Tiffany showed she has some skills when it comes to herding ducks.

I’m still rooting for the girls, of course … surely they’ll make it past the halfway point with qualities that seem custom-made for competitive reality TV.

Their post-race interview here, where the purple team begins to come to grips with what they’re really in for.

I think you can see from this who is going to be the domineering personality … and I think you can tell they will probably go far. And you haters commenters can say all you want — LOL on their claims of $1 million in tournament winnings — but one of the things I like about reality TV is the risk the participants are willing to take. It’s not a new phenomenon … we know how it works, how the producers need to create storylines, and to do that they need characters. They need nice guys, meatheads, bitches, sluts, all that good stuff. And if you give them repeated indication of any distinct characteristic, they will edit away to make that seem like that’s all you’re about. And for the most part your true colors show.

Take Annie Duke on Celebrity Apprentice, for example. Extremely divisive character. Half the people thought she was a super-smart, savvy woman. The other half saw her as a total control-freakish bitch. Yep, no offense to Annie, but that pretty much lines up with all I have heard about her over the years within the poker world, and at least two of the above descriptors line up with my own personal observations and conclusions.

So while reality stars often claim they are misrepresented, frankly, in the spirit of Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink, some might contend that you actually do get to see the real person even better when all the superfluous “personality” is stripped away and left on the cutting room floor. With that in mind, I’m looking forward to getting to see and know “Maria and Tiffany” — whom I suspect will come off a little different but not too much so from the Tiffany Michelle and Maria Ho we already know.

First, UltimateBet announced that Tiffany Michelle has been re-signed to another one-year deal with the site. In addition to again noting her deep run in the 2008 WSOP Main Event, the press release cites “accomplishments in land-based events and UltimateBet’s online poker tables.” Coincidence that the announcement came on the same day as her photo appeared on the Amazing Race website?

“I’m happy to be signing on for another year with UltimateBet and I’m eager to get back to playing in live tournaments and exclusively at their online tables,” said Tiffany Michelle. “The corporate team at UB has been so welcoming and supportive and I’m thrilled to be working with them. I can’t wait for the exciting things in store for us.”

Second, the European Poker Tour Barcelona live reporting team let it slip (after a commentator first did on the EPT Live broadcast earlier in the day) that Isabelle Mercier is no longer a PokerStars-sponsored player. Since sites usually give no reason for dropping players, much less release that information themselves, we can certainly speculate don’t know why Isabelle was dropped. The blurb from the PokerNews reporter:

Incidentally, owing to the folks on the live feed and their tendency towards verbal incontinence, it has just now become public knowledge that Isabelle Mercier is leaving Team Pokerstars. The very best of luck to Ms. Mercier in all her future poker endeavors.

“It’s obviously different from competition at the poker table,” said Ho, who came in 11th place at this year’s World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. “It’s outdoorsy. This is physical and mental, but we will definitely be applying whatever skills we have as gamers to this competition and push ourselves in different ways that we’re not used to doing.”

Their combined bio can be found on the CBS website and describes them as well-traveled, extremely competitive, strong-minded, and savvy. (Funny – but not really – that they’re described by most poker media as simply “hot.”) Despite my usual ban on reality television, I’ll set the DVR to see how far the ladies make it. The premiere is Sunday, September 27.

So much sayable about this, lol … and we can use the phrase “lol” because twitter comes into play. More Phil Hellmuth making a mockery of a few orbits before being pulled from the 2-7 Triple Draw … Tiffany Michelle talking about experimenting with UB and her breasts … Layne Flack being Layne Flack … Shawn Rice and Debo sitting … and just about everything else you might expect from a celebration of, by, and for “anyone who is anyone” in the UB poker world:

Tao of Pokerati at the 40th WSOP
Las Vegas, NV

Episode 11.12: Donkey Shows
2:01

Episode 11.13: Big Game Jack
3:56

The $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha event is working their way down to its final table tonight. They currently have 27 players remaining as they went on their dinner break. Jonathan Tare will have the chip lead when the players return, Greg Pappas is currently in 2nd, with day 1 chip leader Jason Mercier is 3rd in chips. Former bracelet winners Dario Alioto, Eric Froehlich and An Tran are some of the notables making up the final three tables.

The $10,000 7-Card Stud World Championship has 45 players remaining while they play down to their final table. The current leader is Fu Wong, followed by Greg “FBT” Mueller, Max Pescatori, Nick Frangos, Hoyt Corkins and Cory Zeidman. A recent elimination was Day 1 chip leader David Oppenheim, along with Phil Ivey, Joe Cassidy and Bruno Fitoussi being day 2 casualties, falling far short of the money that will be reached when 16 players remain.

The $1,500 NL Holdem event got underway today as a field of 2,791 entrants flooded the tournament area, causing delays in the starts of several other events. Returning on the dinner break will be 889 players, with the current chip leader is Jonathan Little, with “Minneapolis Jim” Meehan, Bertrand “Elky” Grospelier, Tiffany Michelle and Chau Giang among the notables off to a fast start. The money will be reached when 297 players remain, with the winner taking home $666,853.

The $2,500 NL 2-7 Lowball Single Draw event started as 148 players took their seats, as plenty of notables round out the field, including Greg Raymer, Erick Lindgren, John Juanda, Billy Baxter, Chino Rheem, Gavin Smith and Pokerati’s own Tom Schneider as they play eight one-hour levels tonight. Follow all the tournament’s progress at www.worldseriesofpoker.com and Pokerati for DonkeyBomber and other updates.

Poker players arriving in town for the WSOP (via delayed flights) are twittering about it.

@Ali_Nejad has a pic of the motorcade.

LOL: Evelyn Ng and Erica Schoenberg just got done with their bikini photo shoot (with Tiffany Michelle) for Knockout magazine, and they’re all pissy about being stuck in traffic on the Strip — presumably unaware of why things are extra-congested on a Tuesday afternoon.

UPDATE: @JeffreyPollack is off to meet @BarackObama right now. Pre-emptive conclusion: good for poker!

UPDATE: President now headed to the Caesar’s Palace poker room. (Seriously.) via @Andy_Bloch.

Kinda unique here is the coming together of three poker patches — Ultimate Bet, Full Tilt, and Bodog — all in the same shoot.

And though I don’t know this for sure, my guess is that it’s all somehow connected to the forthcoming Knockout Poker Tour. Their inaugural event runs June 5-8 (during the WSOP) at the Hard Rock. This is not a four-day tourney, mind you, it’s a four-day “experience” … where the tournament is a $5,000 + 4,000 or 5,000, your choice depending on what level of VIP perks you want … private jets, limos, penthouse suites, VIP club seating, three parties, Rehab cabanas, etc. … and apparently surrounded the whole time by KnockOut hotties, who will happily let you take pictures with your hand on their butts. Oh, and the champion gets a bracelet, too.

Should be an interesting event, to say the least. And should you decide to forgo the $5k NLH WSOP tournament going on the same day (which pays out about 91 94 percent) in favor of the KOP event (paying out just 50 percent, but guaranteeing a higher booze-and-tail return) and actually win:

Private security will be on-call to fend off any over-zealous club girls who want a piece of the Knockout Poker Tournament Champ. Remember players, what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. That includes the bevy of girls throwing themselves at your feet and the collection of email addresses and phone numbers you accumulated over the weekend.

– Russ Hamilton and Layne Flack on RawVegas.tv
– The Bluff Magazine Online Challenge (complete with breaking news about JJ Prodigy; oops, he did it again!)
– Steroids in poker?
– The poker event sponsorship biz
– Vanessa Rousso and Tiffany Michelle baring some but not all

Listen live here.

And feel free to call in and harass at 866.925.8255.

The Poker Beat Podcast
February 12, 2009

The player pools, tables, tourneys, etc. from Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet magically merge today.

Trying to keep an open mind … because theoretically it is possible that the combination of two sites caught in the biggest cheating scandals in the nascent history of the online poker industry — having learned painful lessons firsthand — could become a paragon of integrity and security, a model for fully legal American online poker in the future.

But I just can’t help to think back to the Dallas underground … when a saturated market had rooms and games beginning to merge, two shady operators joining forces seldom led to anything good (save for some pretty juicy opening-weekend tourneys).

That’s my bias, I suppose … but with that in the back of my mind, I can’t help but think of how one of these sites seemed rotten at the core (with the exception of Mark Seif, I’ve yet to hear any former employee say anything good about Absolute), and the other … well, sure, they’ve changed management and have plenty of good peeps working for them (Annie Duke, Phil Hellmuth, Mean Gene, et al.) … but the top of the pyramid hasn’t really changed as far as we can tell. And with all due respect to those who are just trying to throw good poker times … the mysterious, closely-guarded nature of Tokwiro+Kahnawake+UB+Chief Joe operating on the protected lands of the Mohawk Nation (with offices in Costa Rica) … that’s the definition of shady! Sorry, it just is.

Still, with $22 million in refunds, the action’s gotta be good.

Book 4: WSOP Final Table
Episode 4.5: Boo Berry 4:18